Ventilating fan



March 17, 1942. MART] 2,276,993

I VENTILATING FAN Filed Dec. 1, 1939 j l I N V EN TOR. /7/v TON/0 M177'/.

A TTORNEYS.

Patented Mar. 17, 1942 UNITED STATES PATENT GFFHCE VENTILATING FANAntonio Marti, Hartford, Conn.

Application December 1, 1939, Serial No. 397,007

5 Claims.

This invention relates to ventilating fans which are particularlyadapted for use in vehicles.

An object of the invention is to provide a fan which may be propelled byair driven means, when the vehicle is in motion, and by electricallydriven means when the vehicle is stationary.

A further object of the invention'is'to provide means for selectivelyengaging the said fan to be propelled by either the air or theelectrically driven means. a

A still further object of the invention is to provide means operable bythe movement of the vehicle for automatically engaging the said fan witheither the air or the electrically driven notes an electric motor havinga base 6 which is mountable to a roof 1 of a vehicle. The said base hasa threaded projection 8 which extends through an opening in the saidroof for securing the base thereto by means of a nut 9. A fan I ismounted upon a shaft H which rotatably extends through a sleeve l2 thatcarries the armature of the motor so that it is rotate-d thereby.

An air driven propeller I3 is rotatably mounted upon the roof of thevehicle by means of a shaft I4 that is rotatable in the projection 8 andto receive the upper end of the shaft H so as to retain the same inalignment with the shaft M.

A clutch collar [5 is slidably keyed to the shaft II by means of pins I!which extend into slots in said shaft. The said collar has teeth 18 and[9 adapted to engage teeth 20, in the enlargement l5, and teeth 2| inthe sleeve l2. The said collar is operated by means of a lever 22 whichis pivoted at 23 on the frame 6.

As shown in Fig. 2, my invention also contemplates th'e use of an airoperated vane 24 that is pivoted in a frame 25 mounted upon the roof I.This vane has a lever 26 from which projects a rod 21 that extendsthrough a connectil tion 28, which secures the frame 25 to the roof, andis connected to operate the lever 22. A spring 29 is provided to urgethe said lever in one. direction.

An electric switch 30, preferably mounted to the frame 6, has aprojecting finger 3i which is operated by th lever 22 to control anelectric circuit which includes a source of electric energy 32 that isconnected to the motor 5 by means of conductors 33 and 34. .A separateswitch 35 is also provided for manually controlling said circuit.

The operation of my invention is as follows:

If it is desired to operate the fan by means of the propeller 13, whenthe vehicle is in motion, the lever 22 is pulled downwardly. This raisesth clutch Hi to engage the teeth I8 with the teeth 20 on the shaft It;thus locking the shaft H to said shaft and thereby permitting the fan tobe driven by means of the propeller l3 which is rotated by the aircurrent caused by the movement of thevehicle. When the vehicle is at astandstill, the'lever 22 may be moved upwardly; thus causing the collarIt to lock the shaft II to the sleev l2 so that the fan may be driven bythe motor '5.

In the embodiment illustrated in Fig. 2; when the vehicle is in motion,the vane 24 will be swung by the force of air to rock the lever 26downwardly. This will move the connecting bar 21 to lower the lever 22against the tension of the spring 29; thus raising the collar l6 andengaging the shaft II with the propeller so that the fan will be driventhereby.

When th'e vehicle comes to a standstill, the spring 29 will pull thelever 22 upwardly, raising the vane 24 and lowering the collar l6 intoengagement with the teeth on the sleeve l2 to lock the shaft H to saidsleeve l2 so that the fan will be driven by the motor.

As the lever 22 is moved upwardly to engage the fan with the motor, thesaid lever will raise the finger 3| and close the electric switch bymeans of a switch bar 3 |-a coming into contact with contacts 3lla and3l--a. This will close the electric circuit to energize the motorproviding that the manual switch is closed for theoperation of saidmotor.

As the lever 22 is moved downwardly by the vane 24, the finger 3| of theswitch will drop and thus cause the electric circuit to the motor to bebroken whilethe shaft I4 is locked to the shaft II for driving the fanby means of the propeller I3.

When it is desired to lock the entire mechanism to render the faninoperable, the lever 22 may be locked in position by means of thelooking screw 36 which will engage the bar 21 and lock the lever into aneutral position.

The shaft II is rotatable in the sleeve 12 and is retained againstlongitudinal movement therein preferably by means of a pin l2a whichprojects into an annular groove in said shaft.

When the said shaft II is connected to the shaft I, it will rotatefreely in the sleeve I2 so that the propeller I3 will not be required todrive the motor. Also, when the shaft H is connected to the sleeve l2 itwill be disconnected from the shaft l4 so that the motor will not berequired to drive the propeller; thus, the propeller and the fan are atall times disconnected one from the other while driving the fan; therebyadding to the efficiency of the propeller and motor in driving the fanand, at the same time, reducing the cost of operating the fan.

If desired, a deflector in the form of a cone 3! may be provided belowthe fan ID to deflect air currents from the fan throughout the interiorof the vehicle. Also, if desired, a deflector may be used for directingthe said air currents against the windshield of a vehicle in order tokeep the same dry or free from frost.

It will 'be clearly understood, from the above description, that I haveprovided, for a vehicle, a ventilating fan which may be driven either byair or by an electric motor, and that I have also provided novel meansfor automatically controlling the operation of said fan so that it willbe driven by air when the vehicle is moving and, by other means, such asan electric motor, when the vehicle is stationary.

I claim:

1. For a device of the character described, the combination comprisingan electric motor, a shaft extending through said motor and rotatablefree thereof, an air driven propeller for rotating said shaft, a fancarried by said shaft, and means on said shaft for independentlyconnecting the same either to said propeller or to said motor foroperating the said fan.

2. For a vehicle, a device of the character described, comprising thecombination of an electric motor, a frame for mounting said motor ontosaid vehicle, a propeller rotatable in said frame and disposed on theoutside of said vehicle, a free shaft extending'through said motor, afan secured to said shaft, a sleeve driven by said motor, a clutchslidable on said shaft for connecting the same with either saidpropeller or sleeve, and means for operating the said clutch.

3. In a device of the character described, the combination of a frame, amotor on said frame, a propeller shaft freely rotatable in said frame, apropeller on said shaft, a sleeve rotatable by said motor, a fan shaftco-axial with said sleeve and said propeller shaft, a fan on said fanshaft, a clutch member slidable on said fan shaft, and means operable byair currents for operating said clutch member to lock said fan shaft fordriving said fan either by said propeller or said motor independently ofthe other.

- 4. Ina device of the character described, the combination of a frame,a motor mounted in said frame, an extension in said frame, a .propellershaft rotatable in said extension, a propeller on said propeller shaft,a sleeve extending through said motor and adapted to be driven thereby,a fan shaft extending through said sleeve and rotatable therein, a fansecured to said shaft, and means for connecting said fan shaft either tosaid sleeve or to said propeller shaft independently of the other.

5. In a device of the character described, the combination of a shaft, afan on said shaft, an electric motor, an electric circuit for saidmotor, a switch in said circuit, a propeller driven by air currents, aclutch member for connecting said shaft to either said propeller or saidmotor, an operating member for operating said clutch member and saidswitch to connect said shaft with said propeller and cause the switch tobreak said circuit, ,or to connect said shaft with said motor and causethe switch to close said circuit, means operated by air currents forcontrolling said operating member, and means for retaining said clutchmember in inoperative position.

ANTONIO MARTI.

